Sebastian Coe backed to save IAAF by Dick Pound

Sebastian Coe remains the best man to turn around the IAAF's ruined reputation, World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) investigator Dick Pound has said.

Athletics' world governing body has come in for severe criticism upon the publishing of the second part of a report by an independent commission established by WADA, which claims the IAAF could not have been unaware about the extent of doping in the highest level of the sport.

Coe, who was elected IAAF president in August, sat on the IAAF Council while countries such as Russia exploited a leadership that was described on Thursday as "imbedded" with corruption.

But Pound told a news conference on Thursday with Coe in attendance: "As far as the ability of Lord Coe to remain at the head of the IAAF, I think it's a fabulous opportunity for the IAAF, to seize this opportunity and under a strong leadership to move forward.

"There's an enormous amount of reputational recovery that has to occur here and I can't think of anyone better than Lord Coe to lead that. All our fingers are crossed in that respect."

Pound made clear his belief that Coe was not among IAAF officials that allowed doping to ravage athletics.

The Canadian explained: "I think you've got to understand the concentration of power in and around the president of any international federation and the relative infrequence with which something like the IAAF Council would meet and the level of information that would be conveyed from those at the top to the council, particularly if it happened to deal with problems.

"If you're asking me to give an opinion on whether he lied or not [about his knowledge of doping], I'd say he didn't lie.

"My assessment, for what it's worth, of Lord Coe is if he knew corruption was going on, he would have done something about it."

Pound has previously criticised Coe for being too slow to push for reform within the organisation and many had speculated that Thursday's announcement could prove a death knell for the former Olympic champion's IAAF reign, just five months after replacing the disgraced Lamine Diack as president.

Coe has also faced accusations of conflicted interests over the decision to hand Eugene the right to host the 2021 World Championships, but standing down from an ambassadorial role with Nike has sated much of that furore.

Athletics officials Papa Massata Diack, Valentin Balakhnichev and Alexei Melnikov have been handed lifetime bans over the corruption crisis, but Coe has come away with his reputation largely intact.

"I don't want to lay the failures of an entire council and the lack of a proper governance process at the feet of one individual," Pound added. "I don't think that would be fair.

"I think you learn from experience and experience is what you get when you don't get what you want.

"We had this in the IOC, we had some very bad experiences, we took on board that that was our fault and we had to solve it and we did. I think we've come out the other side.

"I'm sure that with all the best and goodwill in the world, athletics wants to do that for the benefit of its sport. It will find a way to do it."